A former Fine Gael leader has advised Leo Varadkar to “stay away from the Twitter machine” following posts by the Taoiseach this morning.

Alan Dukes said he’s “anti-social media” and added: “I think politicians should stay off Twitter because they make fools of themselves up to an including President Trump.”

His remarks came in response to Tweets by Mr Varadkar where the Taoiseach appeared to hit back at opposition criticism of the government’s Strategic Communications Unit (SCU).

He said that while packing for his trip to the United States – where he will meet Donald Trump this week – he “got thinking about all the talk about spin [versus] substance”.

Mr Varadkar then outlines six things he and the Government did during the week.

They included committing extra funds for damage caused by Storm Emma, introducing legislation for the planned abortion referendum and getting Dáil approval for the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities.

He also noted “high level talks” with EU Council president Donald Tusk and Xavier Bettel, the prime minister of Luxembourg as well as the passing of the Technological Universities Act and opening a policy debate on internet safety.